Orange & Fennel Storecupboard Macarons

The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit is my new favourite book.

I bought it back in the summer and I've had it on my bedside table for the last few months.  It is very much a reference book, although the prose is so friendly, that I usually end up reading a few pages further than intended.

It's a useful book to have to hand, on evenings when you can't quite think what to do with the ingredients you have in the house (hello, pea & rosemary soup). 

This was also the case when I realised that I'd got the MacTweets 14 deadline wrong by -5 days. Two days before the actual deadline. Putting it another way, one hour after the shops had all closed for Christmas.

Chocolate & Cherry Stollen

I told you I was loving the Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes at the moment.

This was another spontaneous bake.  I was going to make the sour cherry stollen recipe from Dan Lepard, but shortly after buying the ingredients for it, I decided to enter the December Monthly Mingle, went to my trusty G&B book and found this recipe.  It's actually a recipe which took second place in a cooking competition hosted by Green & Black's and The National Trust.  

As I'd already bought the sour cherries for the Dan Lepard recipe and I am not the world's biggest fan of raisins and sultanas, I used them in a 50/50 mix with dried apricot as a substitute for the mixed fruit.

I haven't kneaded bread since making it in primary school.  It's much easier than I thought it would be.  I used this tutorial to check the technique.

I think I didn't knead the dough enough, but nonetheless, it turned out quite well for a first try. I did start to panic when the fruit mixture started sloshing out after folding the dough up and I couldn't quite seal it, but it turned out that this didn't matter.

The best thing about this stollen is the chocolate marzipan.  Don't even think about substituting normal store-bought stuff.  It takes 3 minutes to make and it is gorgeous.  And don't be scared by the list of ingredients. I know it's long, but it's really only a teaspoon of this and that, you don't need to sieve or fold anything; this is a really easy recipe and a really satisfying bake.

Sacher-Torte, Sacher Torte and Sachertorte

Any talk of Sachertorte must begin with the story of the cake's origin. I have given three below: choose your favourite.

i) The original cake was invented by a teenager who was filling in for the Austrian prince's head chef, who'd called in sick under the pressure of having to create a cake for the prince and his guests.

ii) The cake's origins are a bit fuzzy, but it's thought to have originated from Austrian villagers, who made the cake every Autumn as part of their offering for the Harvest festival.

iii) It was created by badgers, who acquired a taste for chocolate cake when some fell out of a passing traveller's knapsack onto the forest floor. Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to mill flour, what with badgers not having opposable thumbs, so they set about making a cake with ground almonds instead.

The most difficult things about making this cake are knowing which of the various recipes to use and how to write its' name, given the variations as shown in the headline. I am going with Sachertorte and a recipe found in the Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes book (which I got as a present last Christmas and I am using a lot recently).

How I Plan to Spend Christmas 2010

Ottolenghi Apple & Olive Oil Cake with Apologies

Crappest. 

Photographs. 

Ever.

Curse this winter light (or lack thereof) and my north facing window!
But I promise you that this cake is one of the moistest (sic) and most brilliant that I've tasted so far in my self-appointed role as Cake Tester To The Stars (Max Clifford, take note).

The original recipe, as found in Ottolenghi The Cookbook, gives the least helpful direction ever, as to the amount of apple to use.

3 Bramley Apples

Excuse me..? Out of all the apples in the entire world, which is the one which varies most in size?  I had my mind well and truly boggled when trying to select my apples in the greengrocer, trying to work out if I should go for apples the size of tennis balls, or apples the size of a baby's head.

If I hadn't thought to make a quick check online to see if anyone else had struggled with this, I'd have put 650 grams of apple into the mix.  Yotam clarifies on one of the discussion forums on the Ottolenghi website, that approximately 360 grams of apple is required.

The Lazy Cook: Frozen Berries with White Chocolate Sauce

Frozen Berries with White Chocolate Sauce
Originally uploaded by ScrumptiousSally

Following two months of dealing with an intense workload & feeling as though my temples were made of exploding rage, life is going at a slightly less frenetic pace this month. In turn, I'm finding the energy to do something with my evenings, other than stare at the television in a zombified fashion (or on one memorable-for-the-wrong-reasons evening, lying upside-down on the sofa for two hours).


Life always seems better when I have the time and inclination to prepare myself a meal from scratch; even more so when I am able to plan ahead and embellish meals with some finishing touch or other that says, I've made an effort.

I'm also quite likely to go blogging a bit more this month. I am almost certainly participating in this month's MacTweets, which has asked us to create sweet and savoury macarons. The last three or four challenges have been presented on a theme, which I'm not too good at (taste of summer..?).

Maison Cupcake is hosting the inaugural 'Forever Nigella' challenge. My entry for this is cooling on my kitchen counter as I write...

I'm also hoping to get time to enter WFLH's Monthly Mingle, as hosted by Ria's Collection. I have to make a chocolate recipe for Christmas; yes?

But for now, here is a really easy way to poncify ice cream. I have adapted this recipe, because I don't think the cream is necessary, especially when you have ice-cream helping you out in the background. It's a bit of a Nineties throwback, but if Take That can hack it after 15 years in the wilderness, then I think this dessert can make it back into the limelight.

You can use any berries you like, although personally, I would only use raspberries as part of a mix, not by themselves (too sweet with the white chocolate).

Frozen Berries with White Chocolate Sauce (adapted from recipe by Mark Hix)
serves four

100g white chocolate
4 tbsp whole milk
4 handfuls of frozen berries of your choice
Ice cream

Remove the ice cream and the berries from the freezer to thaw for ten minutes before making a start on the sauce.

Place the broken-up chocolate in a small pan with the milk. Gently heat until the chocolate is almost melted.

Whisk the milk and the chocolate together until the sauce comes together.

Take the pan off the heat.

Assemble the ice cream and berries.

Give the sauce a final whisk, then pour over the berries and ice cream before serving.

Canadian Daiquiri

Canadian Daiquiri
Originally uploaded by ScrumptiousSally

I am almost certainly sure that I have invented this.

As with most amazing things, this was inspired by bacon and cake. One of the good things about being snowbound; it leaves you with a lot of free time for stomach maths.

Bacon + Maple Syrup = Happy

Happy Dancing + Depleted Energy = Hungry

Hungry - No Other Food In The House = Cupboard Search

Cupboard Search = Must Get Better Stocked for Snow Days

Snow Day + Can't Be Arsed to Go To Shops = Nothing To Eat, But Have Ingredients For Cake

Search for New Cake Recipe + Ottolenghi Cookbook = Apple & Olive Oil Cake

Apple Cake / Oh, I have some Pomona + Maple Syrup for Frosting = Inspiration

Inspiration + Alcohol = Canadian Daiquiri

Rum, cider brandy and cinnamon. Perfect for winter.

First, prepare your martini glass by dipping the rim in water, then cinnamon, then putting it in the freezer to get cold and set the cinnamon. Leave in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

50ml golden rum
25ml Pomona, or 15ml Calvados and 15ml apple juice
15ml lemon juice
20ml maple syrup
generous pinch of ground cinnamon

Put the ingredients in a shaker or other sealed container filled with ice. Shake sharply for 10 whole seconds. Strain into frozen martini glass. Garnish with lemon zest or cinnamon stick and serve.